Maia, a half-goblin, suddenly finds himself emperor of an Elven empire after his father and three half-brothers are killed in an airship accident—or was it an accident?

The Goblin Emperor

The Goblin Emperor is a standalone fantasy novel of over four hundred pages. It’s a deep dive into court life with its intrigues, customs and courtiers who range between sycophant and deadly foe. The story explores the themes of trust (in yourself and others) and the nature of friendship when most are unlikely to refuse you or disagree with you.

Maia’s goblin mother is the emperor’s fourth wife and he’s the result of a political, one-time consummation and loveless marriage. At the age of ten, his mother dies and Maia is sent to live with his cousin, Setheris, a former adviser whose arrogance gets him banished from court. No love is lost between the cousins. While the bitter Setheris provides Maia with some tutoring, he’s mostly physically and emotionally abusive towards the boy.

So, is it a damaged young man who takes the throne? No. Maia’s mother provided him with a strong moral compass. And Setheris’s behaviour has left Maia empathetic towards the oppressed. As he learns about the father he'd met just once at his mother’s funeral, Maia choses not to emulate his predecessor. It’s watching how Maia adjusts to rulership while learning as much about himself as those he rules that makes The Goblin Emperor such a riveting read.

Be warned, because there’s hardly any action in this book, and the worldbuilding is limited to the palace. I found a glossary at the front of my e-book, which most readers will find invaluable because of the Elven language used for names, titles and places. Unable to flick back and forth through electronic pages, glossaries and e-books just don’t work for me. I found myself resorting to memorising the shape of an unpronounceable word to recognise which character or location I was reading about. This did spoil the reading experience a little.

The story’s plot is three pronged: who can Maia trust; how should he assert his authority and what really happened to his father and half-brothers? The solution to the third subplot is convoluted but clever.

I enjoyed The Goblin Emperor. What this book lacks in action is made up for by its great protagonist who held my interest from beginning to end.

Image: Amazon.com, 25-Aug-20

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